London in 3 days: Westminster, the Tower and the free museums

Three days in London split by district: Westminster and the West End on day one, the City and the river from St Paul's to the Tower on day two, the British Museum and South Kensington on day three. Each day is walked once you arrive, with one or two Tube rides to get there and back. The London travel guide has the background on the city, and the England guide shows what fits before and after.

Three sights charge and five do not. Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London sell tickets, and all three stop admitting visitors by mid-afternoon, so each day puts its paid sight where the clock demands. The British Museum, the National Gallery, Tate Modern, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum are free and fill the hours around them.

The plan works from any base in zone 1. Where to stay in London compares five areas and their airport links; from Bloomsbury or Covent Garden the first stop of every day is one Tube line away.

Westminster station is on the Jubilee, District and Circle lines, and the abbey is across the square from it. Doors open to visitors at 9:30 from Monday to Friday and at 9:00 on Saturdays, and going in at opening leaves the rest of the day free of deadlines. A multimedia guide is included in the price; you can pick up a device or download a shorter version to your own phone, so bring headphones.

Prices and the day's hours are on the abbey's opening times and prices page. The upgrade to an annual pass is free, and the abbey says tickets bought through third parties cannot be upgraded, which is a reason to buy this one direct.

Outside, the Houses of Parliament and the clock tower that holds Big Ben are next door. Walk through St James's Park to Buckingham Palace. The Household Division's schedule for October 2026 lists a guard change at the palace at 11:00 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. If the ceremony matters to you, turn the morning around: be at the palace railings well before 11:00 and enter the abbey after lunch, before the 15:30 last entry. Dates for later months are on the Changing the Guard calendar.

Spend the afternoon at the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, which is free. It opens daily from 10:00 to 18:00 and until 21:00 on Fridays. A booked free ticket gives fast-track entry, and walk-up entry is available as well. The gallery's cloakroom does not take wheeled luggage, so do not arrive with a suitcase.

Covent Garden and the West End theaters are a short walk north of the square. Have dinner there, and see a show if you booked one; this is the evening of the three that ends closest to a theater.

Start at St Paul's, which opens for sightseeing at 8:30 from Monday to Saturday, earlier than anything else in the plan. St Paul's station is on the Central line. See the cathedral floor and the crypt first, because the dome galleries open at 9:30. The climb is by stairs only: 257 steps to the Whispering Gallery inside the dome, 376 to the Stone Gallery and 528 in all to the Golden Gallery at the top. The cathedral advises visitors with mobility difficulties, or with concerns about heights and confined spaces, not to attempt it.

Ticket types are on the cathedral's sightseeing tickets page. A free multimedia guide comes with the ticket.

From the cathedral steps, the Millennium Bridge, a footbridge, leads across the Thames to Tate Modern. The gallery is free and opens at 10:00. Then follow the riverside path east past Shakespeare's Globe to Borough Market for lunch. The market trades from 10:00 to 17:00 Tuesday to Friday, 9:00 to 17:00 on Saturdays and 10:00 to 16:00 on Sundays, and is shut on Mondays. It warns that visitor numbers are highest on Saturday afternoons, so on a Saturday eat before noon.

Keep walking east along the river to Tower Bridge and cross it; the walk over the bridge is free. The exhibition inside the towers and high walkways is a separate ticket and opens daily from 9:30 to 18:00, with last entry at 17:00.

The Tower of London is at the north end of the bridge, and the afternoon is the time its operator recommends. Historic Royal Palaces says the Tower is quieter after midday and suggests two to three hours. Arrive by 14:00 and you have both. The ticket covers the Crown Jewels, the White Tower, the battlements and a tour led by a Yeoman Warder, the last of which starts at 15:15.

Prices are on the Tower's tickets page and hours, posted week by week, on its opening times page. The price shown first at checkout may include the donation, which brings an adult ticket to £41.80; you can choose the figure without it. Tower Hill station, on the District and Circle lines, is next to the Tower.

Every stop today is free, and none has a closing day, which is why this is the day to hold for a Sunday. The British Museum opens at 10:00. Book the free timed ticket: the museum says it gives priority entry during busy periods, and that visitors without one are still admitted each day but may wait longer. Choose a few galleries before you go in and leave by early afternoon.

Hours are on each museum's own page: the British Museum, the V&A and the Natural History Museum. Special exhibitions at all of them are ticketed separately.

Russell Square station, a short walk from the museum, is on the Piccadilly line, and Transport for London's journey planner gives 14 minutes from there to South Kensington with no change. The V&A puts itself a 5-minute walk from South Kensington station, and the Natural History Museum is next door to it on Cromwell Road. Pick one for a proper visit: the V&A for design, fashion and decorative arts, the Natural History Museum if you are traveling with children.

Finish in the parks. Kensington Gardens begins a few streets north of the museums, at the Albert Memorial, and runs east into Hyde Park. On a Friday you can walk first and visit afterward, since the V&A stays open until 22:00.

Sunday and Monday are the days that break this plan. On Sundays Westminster Abbey opens for services only, and St Paul's admits sightseers only to the dome galleries, on a separate £13.50 ticket. Borough Market is shut on Mondays. The Tower opens every day, but an hour later, at 10:00, on Sundays and Mondays.

So day three, which has no closing day, takes the Sunday. For a Friday-to-Sunday trip, run the days in the order written: Friday has a guard change at the palace in the October schedule, and the National Gallery stays open until 21:00. For Saturday to Monday, do day two on Saturday, day three on Sunday and Westminster on Monday. For Sunday to Tuesday, start with the museums, take Westminster on Monday and St Paul's and the Tower on Tuesday.

One adult pays £97 for the three ticketed sights: £32 at Westminster Abbey, £27 at St Paul's and £38 at the Tower of London. A child of ten pays £43.50 (£14, £10.50 and £19), and the abbey and the Tower are free for the very youngest. Nothing else in the plan charges unless you add a special exhibition or the inside of Tower Bridge.

St Paul's sells its sightseeing ticket for a date and time, so book the 8:30 slot once the trip is fixed. The Tower sells both online in advance and at the ticket office on the day; booking ahead fixes the date and saves the ticket line. Westminster Abbey is the one to buy on its own site, for the free upgrade. The abbey lists the Go City London Pass among the passes it accepts. Before buying any pass, add up what you would pay without it: for this plan the figure to beat is £97 over three days, and are city passes worth it? shows how to run that sum.

Transport adds little. Paying with one contactless card or device, an adult's Tube and rail fares in zones 1 and 2 stop at £8.90 a day, according to TfL's adult rate prices for 2026, so three days cost £26.70 at most. A single ride in zone 1 is £3.00 off-peak, and this plan needs two to four a day.

Rain costs this plan less than it costs most city itineraries, because most of its stops are indoors. The exposed stretches are the walk through St James's Park, the riverside path on day two, the Tower's courtyards and battlements, and the parks at the end of day three. When one day of the forecast is clearly worse, give it to day three and take the museums slowly.

The last entries are early, and in winter the daylight is short as well: 15:30 at the abbey, 16:00 at St Paul's, 16:30 at the Tower. Friday is the day that gives the time back. The National Gallery stays open until 21:00, the British Museum until 20:30, the V&A until 22:00 and Tate Modern until 21:00, on Saturdays too. A trip that includes a Friday can move one museum to the evening and spend the afternoon it frees somewhere else.

With children, cut each day to one main sight. Keep the Tower on day two and go there first, skip the dome climb at St Paul's or the cathedral altogether, and make the Natural History Museum the center of day three. On day one, the guard change and the park can replace the gallery.

Travelers who avoid stairs lose only the dome: the St Paul's ticket still covers the cathedral floor and the crypt. The V&A says its Cromwell Road and Exhibition Road entrances are step-free, and names Knightsbridge, 0.6 miles away, as the nearest step-free Tube station. With two days, drop day three and visit the British Museum on a Friday evening instead.

A fourth day is for one trip out of town. Windsor is the closest, and the Household Division lists a guard change at Windsor Castle at 11:00 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays in October 2026. Oxford in one day and Bath are both simple by train.

Stonehenge is the one where a tour changes the day. The stones have no rail station: the independent route is a train to Salisbury and a bus from there, as London to Stonehenge explains, and a coach tour bundles the transport and the entry into one booking.

Touch the same contactless card or phone on the yellow reader at the start and end of every ride. TfL warns that a journey left unfinished can be charged a maximum fare, and each traveler needs a card or device of their own.

Most visitors who do not need a visa now need an electronic travel authorization before boarding; UK ETA explained covers who, how much and how long it lasts. Compare eSIM plans before you land, since the timed tickets in this plan are QR codes on a phone, and choose travel insurance that covers a stolen phone.